Julie's Florida Getaway

As I mentioned in the last post, I went to Florida for a few days without husband or child.  It was a much needed break for me.  God must have known I needed a break, because I only booked plane tickets two weeks before I went.  I was tired and really felt like I needed some quality friend time, so I randomly looked up tickets from to Florida where two of my best friends live.  The tickets were ultra cheap!  I got down and back for less than $200 (plus lodging and most meals were free--thanks Stephanie!)  When Joel saw how cheap the tickets were and we realized we could handle the trip financially, he told me he thought I needed to go.  He knows me so well.  I love him and I love that he supports me!


I flew out on a Wednesday from Grand Rapids.  So, I took Kyper along to Grand Rapids and met my mother-in-law.  She took Kyper and dropped me off at the airport.  Kyper got to spend four days with Grandma and Grandpa Phillips since Joel was working that week and then he had a guy's camping trip that weekend.  The flight went smoothly and I landed in St. Petersburg on time.  Rebecca and her new little daughter picked me up!  It was so nice to meet Hannah.  She is super cute!  I did dinner with Rebecca and her little family.  We caught up and then Stephanie who had picked Melanie up from Tampa came to Rebecca's apartment to pick me up.  (I didn't stay at Rebecca's because she, John and Hannah were packing and getting ready to move to a new place the following weekend.)

Thursday morning, Rebecca and Hannah drove to Stephanie's house and we all had a nice breakfast together.

Rebecca had to get back to packing, so she couldn't stay for the whole day.  That afternoon Stephanie, Melanie, and I hit up the outlet mall in Orlando.

As Stephanie said on facebook.  We didn't get the headbands--not because we couldn't handle them, but they couldn't handle us.  :)

Friday we decided to hit up the beach.  It was 80 degrees and sunny!  Perfect weather for the beach.  So, after a relaxing morning and a stop to get the best strawberry milkshake I have ever had, we hit up Pass-a-Grille beach.  We even went in the water--up to our waists.  Stephanie must truly love us, because I am sure most Floridans don't go swimming in November.  It is probably mostly tourists from the north that would do that. ;)  Here is a picture of the beach beauties:

(Steph got a little cut off, but it is the best picture of us that we have like this.)

Per Melanie's request we headed to a brewing company for dinner.  Did I mention it was her birthday?  It was great being able to spend her birthday with her.  Here we are at the Tampa Bay Brewing Company:

After dinner we headed home to eat cake!  Stephanie put about 14 extra candles on the cake and we had a good laugh about that.  She just wanted a perfect heart. 

And Stephanie was mean--she got trick candles.  It took a little while to get them all to go out for good.  Melanie was a great sport about it.

Saturday was my last day in town.  Fortunately, I didn't fly out until later in the afternoon, so we could still have some fun that day.  Stephanie showed us around downtown Lakeland that day.  It was pretty neat, because they were having a farmer's market and a shabby chic flea market downtown.  So we walked through the vendors.  We also walked to Lakeland's botanical gardens:

From there we headed to the airport to drop me off.  But, we first had to stop at Parksdale farm again.  That is the place we got the awesome strawberry milkshakes.  We got another one and chatted there for a bit before going to the airport.  (I want to go back during strawberry season--apparently they have some of the best strawberry shortcake down there and that is totally my favorite dessert.  Although, I am not sure anything can beat how I grew up on it--Jiffy mix shortcakes and Michigan strawberries.  But hey, I am not that discriminating about my favorite dessert.)  Okay, so I had a picture--not a great one of the milkshakes, but it won't download right now for some reason.  

There you have it my getaway to Florida.  It was such a good time with some amazing friends!